Tag Archives: announcements

This is the clip art we used on the flyer to announce our Keep Them Warm coat drive for the children at Southern View School. What you see below are the real pictures of the results so far of our efforts!

Our drive is only three weeks old and in that time we have collected and delivered twenty coats, over 200 pairs of socks, 200 pair of gloves, countless hats plus the shoes and boots you see in the picture and we are still going strong. While the numbers of gloves and socks sound like a lot, we all know how children lose things! We are going to keep up our drive throughout the winter to replace lost gloves. Full confession: I never spend more than $2.00 on a pair of gloves because I always lose them. Always. I have every sympathy in the world for the child who loses his or her gloves!

If you are not a member of Holy Family you can still donate to our drive. Simply give your donation to a member or –better yet!—drop it by Holy Family before 4:30 p.m. Mass on any Saturday. We will gratefully accept your donation on behalf of the children.

On another note, I would like to wish you a Happy New Liturgical Year! And Happy Advent. I love the deep blues and violets of this season. I love the candlelight, I love singing “O Come O Come Emmanuel” and I love how the Scripture builds leading us into Christmas. I hope you, too, celebrate the things you love about Advent as you go about making your preparations for Christmas. Come celebrate Advent with us at Holy Family, we would love to have you be part of our family!

Bishop John Shelby Spong, a renowned theologian and author, will be coming to Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation on April 9th. Holy Family Inclusive Catholic Community is helping to sponsor this event. Advance tickets are $10.00 through ALUUC or $15.00 at the door.

Would you like to get together with a group and discuss a new book? Well then we’ve got the group for you. Our new book group is forming to read and discuss Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by Bishop John Shelby Spong. The group will meet February 7th, March 6th and April 3rd at 2pm to discuss the book. If you would like to sign up and get directions, please e-mail Margaret.

The Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation is welcoming Bishop John Shelby Spong to Springfield on April 9, 2016. Holy Family is raising funds to assist with Bp. Spong’s sponsorship. Please consider making a donation for this purpose at one of our weekend masses or through the Paypal link on our website. Just mention Bp. Spong in the comment field so we know where to apply the funds. Thanks!

He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. A prominent theme in Spong’s writing is that the popular and literal interpretations of Christian scripture are not sustainable and do not speak honestly to the situation of modern Christian communities. He believes in a more nuanced approach to scripture, informed by scholarship and compassion, which can be consistent with both Christian tradition and contemporary understandings of the universe.

Spong has immersed himself in contemporary Biblical scholarship at such places as Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Yale Divinity School, Harvard Divinity School and the storied universities in Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge and describes his own life as a journey from the literalism and conservative theology of his childhood to an expansive view of Christianity.